Anarchist Music

Music has always been integral to anarchist culture. In the mid-nineteenth century anarchist workers began to form choirs throughout Europe, but it was especially in the U.S. where music became a constant presence in the anarchist movement. Singing was an enjoyable passtime at the many picnics/assemblies held by anarchists and song lyrics often carried a militant message. Music was so important to the IWW that it passed out a song book with the membership card. Wobblies had to compete for public attention on city streets with groups like the Salvation Army and singing was one way to draw a crowd and drown out the cacophony from the street and the Salvation Army's proselytizers. In mid-twentieth century John Cage brought anarchist theory to music composition and in the late 20th and early 21st centuries anarchist lyrics and bands emerged to become a permanent part of popular music.

Claimed by a variety of left political movements, "The Internationale" became the theme song of socialist politics. The link below will play a version of "The Internationale" and more connections between music and anarchism can be explored through the links above.

The Internationale, L'Internationale in French, is the Worldwide Anarchist Anthem but also is sung by Socialists and Communists alike.
The French words were written by Eugene Pottier in the wake of the 1871 Paris Commune. It exists as a unifying song for all the oppressed workers of the world.

Literal English Translation

First Stanza - Arise, wretched of the earth
Arise, convicts of hunger
Reason thunders in its crater
This is the eruption of the end
Of the past let us wipe the slate clean
Enslaved masses, arise, arise
The world is about to change its foundation
We are nothing, let us be all
|: This is the final struggle
Let us group together, and tomorrow
The Internationale
Will be the human race

Second Stanza - There are no supreme saviours
Neither God, nor Caesar, nor tribune.
Producers, let us save ourselves
Decree the common welfare
So that the thief expires,
So that the spirit be pulled from its prison,
Let us fan the forge ourselves
Strike the iron while it is hot
|: This is the final struggle
Let us group together, and tomorrow
The Internationale
Will be the human race

Third Stanza - The state oppresses and the law cheats
The tax bleeds the miserable
No duty is imposed on the rich
'Rights of the poor' is a hollow phrase
Enough languishing in custody
Equality wants other laws:
No rights without obligations, it says,
And as well, no obligations without rights
|: This is the final struggle
Let us group together, and tomorrow
The Internationale
Will be the human race

Fourth Stanza - Hideous in their self-glorification
Kings of the mine and rail
Have they ever done anything other
Than steal work?
Into the coffers of that lot,
What work creates has melted
In demanding that they give it back
The people only wants its due.
|: This is the final struggle
Let us group together, and tomorrow
The Internationale
Will be the human race

Fifth Stanza - The kings make us drunk with their fumes,
Peace among ourselves, war to the tyrants!
Let the armies go on strike,
Stocks in the air, and break ranks
If these cannibals insist
On making heroes of us,
Soon they will know our bullets
Are for our own generals
|: This is the final struggle
Let us group together, and tomorrow
The Internationale
Will be the human race

Sixth Stanza - Labourers, peasants, we are
The great party of workers
The earth belongs only to men
The idle will go reside elsewhere
How much of our flesh they feed on,
But if the ravens and vultures
Disappear one of these days
The sun will still shine
|: This is the final struggle
Let us group together, and tomorrow
The Internationale
Will be the human race

The Internationale was at one point the Russian National anthem but exists in most languages across the globe.